Christmas Cheese Boards

Christmas Cheese Boards! Are you making a cheese board for the holidays? Here are some fun ways to change it up a bit and get festive! Happy Holidays, everyone! 

I can’t believe Christmas is next week! We leave for Dallas on Friday to spend the holidays with my family and parents. It’ll be in the 50s and 60s in Dallas so we are pretty excited.

Growing up my parents were always working so they didn’t do a whole lot for Christmas decorations, besides putting up a Christmas tree. My mom didn’t bake and my parents didn’t go crazy with the gift giving. Since I grew up that way, with the exception of the baking, I tend to do the same thing for the holidays. We don’t go crazy with the gifts and tend to just purchase a few small things and one or two bigger items for the girls. 

For me, it’s more just to celebrate Christmas and being together with my family. The food is probably the most important thing for our family. We always put out a spread of food and you know there will be a cheese board, or two or three. Wishing everyone a truly joyous holiday wherever you will be. I can’t believe it’s going to be 2020!

Print Recipe

Christmas Cheese Boards

Here are some fun and festive ways to get creative with your cheese boards this year! For a recipe for Sugared cranberries, click here. *For the "tree" board, I specifically purchased pretzel balls, cheese stick type crackers, these 34 degrees crackers and I also used Stroopwafels. 

Prep Time25 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cheese, cheese and charcuterie, cheese board, cheese plate, Christmas cookies

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• Cheeses  You'll want an assortment of at least 3 to 4 different cheeses of various textures and flavors. I like to buy the wedge cheeses in various sizes. They are easy to slice into the long strips needed to create the star. I also use blue cheese that I crumble.
• Charcuterie  Select several dried meats that compliment your cheese flavors, such as Salami, Proscuitto, Soppressata, Capocollo or Mortadella. I went for larger, flatter pieces.
• Blackberries and raspberries pomegranate arils would also work!
• Sugared cranberries
• Crackers and/or Bread* Include a variety of crackers with different textures that compliment your cheese and charcuterie flavor profiles; and/or sliced baguette or other crusty bread.
• Stroopwafels
• Nuts and almonds Choose a few types of nuts that offer both complimenting and contrasting flavors, like candied walnuts and spicy almonds. I love marcona almonds.
• Pickled Things  Veggies that are pickled - like beets, asparagus, and cornichons - add great sour notes for balancing the sweetness and saltiness of your other cheese board items.
• Jams and/or Preserves 
• Castelvetrano olives You can include both green and black olives, or whatever variety goes best with your cheese and charcuterie selections. Castelvetrano olives are the ones shown below.
• Fresh herbs for garnish and decorations. I mainly use fresh rosemary and thyme.
• Extras: popcorn, cookies, chocolates for fun

Instructions

• For the Christmas "tree" board: simply follow the photo above.
• For the Holiday "star" cheese board: arrange everything on your board and try to keep the charcuterie as flat as possible. Make sure to leave room around the edge to place the fresh rosemary along the edge. Arrange the cheese strips, in a circle pattern, alternating the long and short strips or laying the shorter pieces on top. Lastly, fill in the holes with the sugared cranberries, nuts, candied pecans and olives. Enjoy!

Notes

*For the "tree" board, I specifically purchased pretzel balls, cheese stick type crackers, these 34 degrees crackers and I also used Stroopwafels. 

This board is completely inspired by this photo from Roth Cheese. I hope you enjoy!